The Story of... - NOT AVAILABLE

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Brief Synopsis

Sally and Bob have been married a year. She might be pregnant, so Dr. West picks up a test sample and tells them to come by in a week for the result. They recall problems they had just before marriage when they found out about each other's past (V.D. and pregnancy). Dr. West had helped them with good counsel and two films ("The Story of V.D." and "The Story of Reproduction"). A week later at his office he has good news and shows them another film, "The Story of Life." Dr. West wants them to know about modern medical science and to teach their kids the facts of life. The movie ends with a commercial for a new five-book-in-one, "The Mid-Century Marriage Guide."

After Bob Stephens' wife Sally tells him that she thinks she is going to have a baby, Dr. West pays a house call to take an A-Z pregnancy test, known as the rabbit test, and tells them that he will know the results in a week. The three then discuss their meeting a year earlier, when Bob and Sally visited the doctor's office for the results of their pre-marital, physical examinations: Dr. West cheerfully tells Sally that the first baby she had will not prevent her from having many more and informs Bob that there is no remaining trace of the venereal disease he had contracted. Bob and Sally express shock as neither had known of the other's previous condition, after which Sally admits that she had an illegitimate baby and Bob confesses to having had a venereal disease. After declaring that she would sooner marry a leper, Sally storms out of West's office, and the doctor apologizes to Bob for what he has said. Bob then explains that a college friend, Nicholas Wilde, set him up with a prostitute who passed the disease on to him. Wilde was later killed in the Battle of the Bulge while saving Bob's life. Realizing that Bob needs to be educated about venereal diseases, the doctor shows him a film which depicts, in graphic detail, the ravages of syphilis and gonorrhea. After thinking things over, Sally returns to the doctor's outer office, preoccupied that Bob has had this terrible disease. West then points out that she is not without fault and asks her to tell him her story. Sally states that her child's father was killed in action in Europe and that the man's name was Nicholas Wilde. While Bob is waiting impatiently in the inner office, Sally reveals to the surprised West that she and Wilde were engaged in San Francisco and that he did not know he was going to be a father. The doctor takes her next door and asks her to tell Bob about her fiancé, but not to mention his name. Sally then tells Bob her story: Before her fiancé is drafted and leaves to fight in Europe, they have sex. When she discovers that she is pregnant, Sally takes drugs in an attempt to lose the baby then goes to an abortionist, but gets no further than the waiting room. After receiving news that her fiancé has been killed in the war, she attempts suicide by jumping off a pier, causing her baby boy to be stillborn in a home for unwed mothers. Bob now demands to know who the father was and West asks Sally to tell him. Bob is stunned that his old friend Wilde was the father and Sally is amazed to learn that Bob also knew him. Bob tells her that after he was drafted and the army doctors cured his disease, he ended up in the same outfit with Wilde, who sacrificed himself to save Bob's life. Sally and Bob now realize that they both have been wrong and make up, much to the delight of the doctor. West then expresses outrage over people's ignorance of human sexuality and shows them an animated film on the process of human reproduction. After the film ends, Bob and Sally thank the doctor for all his help and he suggests that they buy a book on marital relations and read it together on their honeymoon. As Sally's father is working in South America, she asks Dr. West if he will give the bride away and he agrees to do so. Back in the present, West tells them to come in to his office the following week for the results of the test. At their visit, after confirming Sally's pregnancy, the doctor shows them a film comprised of medical footage of a natural and a caesarean birth. When the film ends, West wishes them well and they promise him that there will be no more ignorance in their family and that they will educate their child in the facts of life.